Monday, June 12, 2017

Mosul Campaign Day 238 Jun 11 2017

The Iraqi forces (ISF) have been consistently inconsistent
in their announcements about advances against the Islamic State and there were
new examples of that in the Mosul battle. First, the War Media Cell said only the
southern part of the Zinjali neighborhood in west Mosul was freed by the army’s
9th Division. The commander of the Federal Police claimed the entire
area was taken on June
9. The Federal Police were removing
explosives and looking for any insurgents that might have been left behind
within the neighborhood. There was a new attack upon the Bab al-Sinjar entrance
to the Old City district. The ISF have said they’ve been assaulting that area
for days now. This raises the questions whether that really happened, whether this
was just a new attack, or a new unit joined in. Finally, according to
the Federal Police 50% of Shifa was taken. The Iraqi forces have a bad habit of
claiming successes before they happen. That’s because of the constant pressure
to have daily press releases about victories in the war. That leads to these
types of situations where a neighborhood is called freed when it isn’t yet.

There was a meeting of military commanders in Ninewa, which decided that
the army’s 15th Division would be responsible for Tal Afar.
Yesterday, the army set about freeing towns to the east of Tal Afar. This was a
big disappointment for the Hashd who surrounded Tal Afar months ago, and have
constantly been pushing Baghdad to allow them to move on the village ever since
then. Turkey however complained vociferously from the start and threatened
military intervention if that were to occur. It looks like the Abadi government
didn’t want any more problems with Ankara.

More IS suspects have been found
shot dead and left by the wayside in Ninewa. 11 men were discovered blindfolded
and shot south of Mosul outside of Hamam al-Alil. Some accused them of being IS
members, others claimed they were innocent. Human Rights Watch has documented
several other similar cases. A vigilante group made up of members of the Jabour
tribe may be responsible. At the end of May, a group posted on Facebook calling
for justice against not only IS members but their families. There was a spate
of attacks on families afterwards. This will be a lasting problem in Ninewa.
The government has no reconciliation program for the province or the country in
general. There are courts to deal with IS suspects, but they are overwhelmed.
Even if someone goes through that process and is released, there are others
that might think they are guilty and exact their own revenge. IS created such
deep divisions, exacted such a heavy toll upon the population that more
vigilantism is inevitable.

This is the three year anniversary of the fall of Mosul and
northern Iraq to the insurgency. A member of the Ninewa council blamed
former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. He also noted that there were
differences between Baghdad and Ninewa and the Ninewa Governor Atheel Nujafi
and the Iraqi forces that were contributing factors as well. The collapse of
the security forces and the quick advance of the militants was the main reason
why Maliki could not secure a third term as premier. Today he is trying to
claim that he was the one that saved the country, and blames a conspiracy of
the Kurds, Sunnis, the U.S., Turkey, and Gulf states for the 2014 events.

Some families from Mosul were expelled
from a displaced camp west of Baghdad for complaining about corruption. 50
families were kicked out by the ISF after they went to the authorities over the
camp director. They accused him of stealing food and aid. They ended up getting
kicked out as a result.

Australia contributed
$1.5 million to the United Nations Development Program in Iraq to help with the
humanitarian situation in Ninewa. In total the country has given $3 million in
2017 to aid work in Iraq. The U.N.’s operations have been woefully underfunded
for years now. At the start of June for instance, the United Nations High
Commissioner For Refugees revealed that
only 21% of its $126 million request for aid for displaced in Mosul had been
met. The United States was able to form a coalition to provide military support
to Iraq against the Islamic State, but on the humanitarian side the
international community has not been as interested.

SOURCES

Adhamiyah News, “Military Information Cell: the liberation
of the southern part of Zinjili and storming Bab Sinjar,” 6/11/17

Bas News, “Federal
officer: freed 50% of the Shifa neighborhood and the killing of a senior
security official in Daesh,” 6/11/17

- “Senior commanders
in Mosul are looking to start the process of liberating Tal Afar,” 6/11/17

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About Me

Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the political, economic, security and cultural situation in Iraq via original articles and interviews. I have written for the Jamestown Foundation, Tom Ricks’ Best Defense at Foreign Policy and the Daily Beast, and was responsible for a chapter in the book Volatile Landscape: Iraq And Its Insurgent Movements. My work has been published in Iraq via NRT, AK News, Al-Mada, Sotaliraq, All Iraq News, and Ur News all in Iraq. I was interviewed on BBC Radio 5, Radio Sputnik, CCTV and TRT World News TV, and have appeared in CNN, the Christian Science Monitor, The National, Columbia Journalism Review, Mother Jones, PBS’ Frontline, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Institute for the Study of War, Radio Free Iraq, Rudaw, and others. I have also been cited in Iraq From war To A New Authoritarianism by Toby Dodge, Imagining the Nation Nationalism, Sectarianism and Socio-Political Conflict in Iraq by Harith al-Qarawee, ISIS Inside the Army of Terror by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassahn, The Rise of the Islamic State by Patrick Cocburn, and others. If you wish to contact me personally my email is: motown67@aol.com